May/June 2002 WHILE WEAVERVILLE WAITS

WHILE WEAVERVILLE WAITS…

The progress of the Weaverville airport relocation (due to the non standard uphill one-way runway) was discussed at the Trinity County Advisory Committee meeting held April 19 2002. The annual Trinity County Pilots Association (a CPA chapter) dinner meeting was scheduled immediately thereafter to update members attending. The $21M project will be funded 95.5% by State and Federal grants.

The Environmental Impact Report, which still has not been released, sets new standards for attention to detail (to ward off suits and to study auto traffic flow). We were told that it is about six inches thick or equivalent to two inches per year of preparation.

The delay has not been due to the dedicated county staff who are to be commended for their ability to thread very muddy waters.

But ask yourself: If it takes seven years of planning to get an airport EIR in a rural area on a ridge top, how valuable is your airport?

It can be noted that over several years, Trinity County has allowed the construction of a senior citizen apartment complex at the Weaverville airport departure/landing end of the runway, a dump transfer station inside of that, an office for county personnel even closer than that, followed by a juvenile detention center (spell that “low population density use” for safety?) on the west side of the main ramp.

The development at the airport stopped with the appointment of CPA Region 1 VP to the new Trinity County Airport Land Use Commission. At the first meeting, I stipulated the first air navigation easement in Trinity county for property to the north of the runway which has been the site of several aircraft crashes (which of course will tarnish an airport’s reputation and has lead to no night ops even though it is lighted and has a VASI).

Now, the present airport location has been selected to be the site for the new county hospital on the runway-and the patient is still breathing? Stay tuned, much more to come…